116 Facts About Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born on September 23,1949 and is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

Bruce Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, combining commercially successful rock with poetic, socially conscious lyrics that reflect working class American life.

Bruce Springsteen is known for his energetic concerts, some of which last more than four hours.

Bruce Springsteen changed his style and achieved worldwide popularity with Born to Run.

Bruce Springsteen followed with Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River, Bruce Springsteen's first album to top the Billboard 200 chart.

Bruce Springsteen mostly hired session musicians for the recording of his next three albums, Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, and Lucky Town.

Bruce Springsteen reassembled the E Street Band for Greatest Hits, and recorded the acoustic album The Ghost of Tom Joad and the EP Blood Brothers solo.

Bruce Springsteen followed with two more albums with the E Street Band, Magic and Working on a Dream.

In 2017,2018 and 2021, Bruce Springsteen performed the critically acclaimed show Bruce Springsteen on Broadway, in which he performed songs and told stories from his 2016 autobiography; an album version from the Broadway performances was released in 2018.

Bruce Springsteen released the solo album Western Stars in 2019, Letter to You with the E Street Band in 2020, and a solo covers album entitled Only the Strong Survive in 2022.

Bruce Springsteen's accolades include 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award.

Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, was named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and the National Medal of Arts in 2023.

Bruce Springsteen was born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, on September 23,1949, to Douglas Frederick "Dutch" Bruce Springsteen and his wife, Adele Ann.

Bruce Springsteen's father worked as a bus driver and other jobs.

Bruce Springsteen's father had mental health issues throughout his life, which worsened in his later life.

Bruce Springsteen is of Dutch, Irish, and Italian descent, and grew up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey.

Bruce Springsteen's paternal ancestor, John Bruce Springsteen, was a patriot in the American Revolution, which evolved into the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

Bruce Springsteen's Italian maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense and emigrated through Ellis Island.

Bruce Springsteen arrived in the United States unable to read or write English, but went on to become a lawyer and impressed the young Springsteen as being "larger than life".

Pamela Bruce Springsteen worked briefly as an actress and later as a photographer; she took photos for three Bruce Springsteen albums, Human Touch, Lucky Town, and The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Bruce Springsteen attended the St Rose of Lima Catholic School in Freehold, where he was at odds with the nuns and rebelled against the strictures imposed upon him, though some of his later music reflected a Catholic ethos and included Irish Catholic hymns with a rock music twist.

In 2012, Bruce Springsteen said that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than his political ideology that most influenced his music.

Bruce Springsteen grew up hearing fellow New Jersey singer Frank Sinatra on the radio, and became interested in being a musician by the age of seven after seeing Elvis Presley's performances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 and 1957.

In ninth grade, Bruce Springsteen entered Freehold High School, a public high school, but did not fit in there either.

Bruce Springsteen graduated in 1967, but felt so alienated that he skipped his graduation ceremony.

Bruce Springsteen briefly attended Ocean County College, but dropped out.

At age 19, Bruce Springsteen was drafted, but failed his physical examination because of a concussion he suffered in a motorcycle accident two years earlier combined with his behavior at induction, both of which reportedly made him unacceptable for military service.

In failing his examination, Bruce Springsteen likely avoided conscripted service in the Vietnam War.

In 1964, Bruce Springsteen saw the Beatles' televised appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

From 1969 through early 1971, Bruce Springsteen performed with the band Child, which later changed its name to Steel Mill and included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin, and later Steven Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson.

Bruce Springsteen brought his skills to the attention of several people who went on to prove influential to his career development, including managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, who in turn brought him to the attention of John Hammond, a talent scout at Columbia Records.

Bruce Springsteen acquired the nickname "the Boss" during this period, since he took on the task of collecting his band's nightly pay and distributing it among his bandmates.

The nickname reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly, which Bruce Springsteen played with other Jersey Shore musicians.

Bruce Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records in 1972 by John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier.

Crawdaddy was an early champion of Bruce Springsteen; Knobler profiled him in the magazine three times, in 1973,1975, and 1978.

Bruce Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope with the E Street Band providing a less folksy, more rhythm and blues vibe, and lyrics that romanticized teenage street life.

In February 1974, The Stone Pony, a music venue and bar, opened on Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park, and Bruce Springsteen played there regularly.

Several years later, in the early 1980s, prior to the start of the Born in the USA Tour in June 1984, Bruce Springsteen met his second and current wife Patti Scialfa at The Stone Pony during her performance there.

Bruce Springsteen battled with anger and frustration throughout the sessions, saying he heard "sounds in [his] head" that he could not explain to the others in the studio.

Bruce Springsteen was furious at the initial acetate, throwing it into the swimming pool of the hotel he was staying at.

Bruce Springsteen contemplated scrapping the entire project and re-recording it live before he was stopped by Landau.

In October 1975, Bruce Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Newsweek and Time in the same week, becoming the first artist to do so.

The magazines' cover stories resulted in a media backlash, as critics began wondering if Bruce Springsteen was for real or the product of record company promotion.

Bruce Springsteen was hurt by the backlash and disliked his newfound attention.

Between 1976 and 1978, Bruce Springsteen provided four compositions to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, including "The Fever" and "Hearts of Stone", and collaborated on four more with Steven Van Zandt, producer of their first three albums.

Bruce Springsteen recorded the songs on the album as demo recordings at his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, intending to re-record them with the E Street Band, but after poor test sessions he decided to release the recordings as is.

The video for the song showed a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Bruce Springsteen, which helped start the actress's career.

Bruce Springsteen played on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985.

Bruce Springsteen's live cover of the Jimmy Cliff song "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on US Top 40 stations as well as reaching No 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.

Bruce Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love in October 1987.

In 1992, after risking fan accusations of "going Hollywood" by moving to Los Angeles and working with session musicians, Bruce Springsteen released two albums at once: Human Touch and Lucky Town.

Bruce Springsteen won an Academy Award in 1994 for his song "Streets of Philadelphia", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia.

Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 by Bono, a favor he returned in 2005.

In 2002, Bruce Springsteen released his first studio effort with the full band in 18 years, The Rising, produced by Brendan O'Brien.

The title track gained airplay in several radio formats, and the record became Bruce Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years.

Bruce Springsteen played an unprecedented 10 nights at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

At the ceremony, Bruce Springsteen performed the Clash's "London Calling" with Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt and No Doubt's bassist, Tony Kanal, in tribute to Joe Strummer.

Bruce Springsteen supported the album on the Magic Tour, his first tour with the E Street Band since 2003.

Bruce Springsteen gave solo acoustic performances in support of Obama's campaign throughout 2008, culminating with a November 2 rally at which he debuted the song "Working on a Dream" in a duet with Scialfa.

Bruce Springsteen was the musical opener for the Obama Inaugural Celebration on January 18,2009, which was attended by over 400,000 people.

On January 11,2009, Bruce Springsteen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for "The Wrestler", from the Darren Aronofsky film by the same name.

Bruce Springsteen performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1,2009, agreeing to perform after having declined on prior occasions.

Bruce Springsteen received the Kennedy Center Honors on December 6,2009.

President Obama gave a speech in which he asserted that Bruce Springsteen had incorporated the lives of regular Americans into his expansive palette of songs.

Obama added that Bruce Springsteen's concerts were not just rock-and-roll concerts, but "communions".

The 2000s ended with Bruce Springsteen named one of eight Artists of the Decade by Rolling Stone magazine and with Bruce Springsteen's tours ranking him fourth among artists in total concert grosses for the decade.

On July 31,2012, in Helsinki, Finland, Bruce Springsteen performed his longest concert ever at four hours and six minutes with 33 songs.

In 2012, Bruce Springsteen campaigned for President Barack Obama's re-election in the 2012 presidential election, appearing and performing at Obama rallies in Ohio, Pittsburgh, Iowa, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Bruce Springsteen released his eighteenth studio album, High Hopes, in January 2014.

The first single and video were of a newly recorded version of the song "High Hopes", which Bruce Springsteen had previously recorded in 1995.

Bruce Springsteen made his acting debut in the final episode of season three of Van Zandt's show Lilyhammer, which was named "Loose Ends" after a Bruce Springsteen song on the Tracks album.

Chapter and Verse, a compilation from throughout Bruce Springsteen's career dating back to 1966, was released in September 2016.

On September 7,2016, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bruce Springsteen performed for four hours and four minutes, his longest-ever show in the United States.

Bruce Springsteen co-directed the film along with longtime collaborator Thom Zimny.

On May 29,2020, Bruce Springsteen appeared remotely during a livestream, no-audience concert by the Dropkick Murphys at Fenway Park in Boston.

Bruce Springsteen performed the Dropkick Murphys song "Rose Tattoo" and his song "American Land", sharing co-vocals with Ken Casey on both songs.

In February 2021, it was announced that Bruce Springsteen was releasing an eight-part podcast on Spotify titled Renegades: Born in the USA that would feature himself in conversation with Barack Obama discussing a wide range of topics including family, race, marriage, fatherhood, and the state of the US Bruce Springsteen performed co-lead vocals and guitar on John Mellencamp's song "Wasted Days", released in September 2021.

On June 7,2021, Bruce Springsteen announced that his Bruce Springsteen on Broadway shows would return for a limited run at Jujamcyn's St James Theatre beginning on June 26,2021.

On September 11,2021, Bruce Springsteen performed "I'll See You in My Dreams" in tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks.

On December 13,2021, Bruce Springsteen gave a surprise four song performance at the John Henry's Friends benefit concert for children diagnosed with Autism where he was joined by Steve Earle and the Dukes as his backing band.

On December 16,2021, Bruce Springsteen sold the masters of his entire catalog and the coinciding music publishing rights to Sony Music for $500 million.

In November, Bruce Springsteen released his twenty-first studio album, Only the Strong Survive, a covers album of classic soul music songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

On June 15,2023, former E Street Band member David Sancious, who left the band in 1974, said that he is set to appear on a follow-up to Only the Strong Survive and that Bruce Springsteen has completed 18 songs for the album.

Bruce Springsteen provided vocals on the song "History Books" by the Gaslight Anthem, the title track on the band's October 2023 album.

Bruce Springsteen was undergoing treatment for peptic ulcer disease and doctors recommended he not perform live.

That year, Bruce Springsteen contributed guitar to a re-release of Mark Knopfler's "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

In July 2024, Forbes reported that Bruce Springsteen had a net worth of more than $1.1 billion, thanks to his tours and the sale of his back catalogue in 2021, making him one of the richest celebrities and musicians.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Bruce Springsteen has been called a "rock 'n' roll poet" who "[radiates] working-class authenticity".

Bruce Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, a genre combining mainstream rock music with working class thematic concerns and socially conscious lyrics.

Bruce Springsteen's themes include social and political commentary and are rooted in the struggles faced by his own family of origin.

Bruce Springsteen used it to lyricize "America's slide from industrial-era swagger into service-economy anomie".

Bruce Springsteen's songs have been the subject of various scholarly articles analyzing his music and lyrics.

Bruce Springsteen briefly dated artist Karon Bihari in the 1970s, who claimed the Darkness on the Edge of Town song "Candy's Room" was about her.

Bruce Springsteen had relationships with photographer Lynn Goldsmith, model Karen Darvin and, for four years in the 1980s, actress Joyce Hyser.

Bruce Springsteen liked her voice and after the performance he introduced himself to her.

Early in 1984, Bruce Springsteen asked Scialfa to join the E Street Band for the Born in the USA Tour, which began in June 1984.

Opposites in background, the two had an 11-year age difference and Bruce Springsteen's traveling took its toll on their relationship.

The Tunnel of Love Express Tour began in February 1988 and Bruce Springsteen convinced Scialfa to postpone her own solo record and join the tour.

Bruce Springsteen received press criticism for the apparent haste in which he and Scialfa started their relationship.

Bruce Springsteen made her show-jumping debut with Team USA in August 2014.

Bruce Springsteen later began following a mostly vegetarian diet while running up to six miles on a treadmill and lifting weights three times a week.

In September 2023, Bruce Springsteen announced the postponement of all his concerts in the US beginning in that month and through December, due to his ongoing treatment for peptic ulcer disease.

Bruce Springsteen supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, announcing his endorsement in April 2008.

Bruce Springsteen appeared at several rallies in support of Obama's campaign throughout that year.

At one such rally in Ohio, Bruce Springsteen discussed the importance of "truth, transparency and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and a life filled with the dignity of work, the promise and the sanctity of home".

Bruce Springsteen was a staunch critic of Donald Trump throughout his first term as president of the United States.

In October 2019, Bruce Springsteen said Trump "doesn't have a grasp of the deep meaning of what it means to be an American," and in June 2020 called him a "threat to our democracy".

On October 3,2024, Bruce Springsteen endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election, and gave a speech at one of her campaign rallies on October 24.

Bruce Springsteen has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award.

Bruce Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, was named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016.

In May 2021, Bruce Springsteen became the eighth recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize, a prize that honors an artist who speaks out for social justice and carries on the spirit of the folk singer.

In March 2023, Bruce Springsteen was awarded the 2021 National Medal of Arts from President Joe Biden at the White House.

Bruce Springsteen was supposed to receive the award in 2021 but the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the ceremonies.

In March 2024, it was announced that Bruce Springsteen would be named an Academy Fellow by The Ivors Academy in May 2024.

On May 23,2024, Bruce Springsteen became the first international songwriter that the Academy has inducted into the Fellowship in its 80-year history.

Bruce Springsteen has developed a reputation for energetic and long-lasting live performances.